“Cheetah Simulator” sounds like a name I’d enter in a “create a new videogame genre” competition, when I was about 12. And honestly, the game is exactly the sort of thing that I’d imagine it would be. By which I mean, profoundly boring. Not that I had some expectations with a title like this, and for its empty price tag it’s certainly fine, just don’t expect to hold onto it for a long time.

Honestly, Cheetah Simulator is pretty self-descriptive. The player embodies a cheetah that suffers insomnia, constipation, extreme dehydration, and lots of other issues, which is more or less understandable, since it exists in an enclosed subspace that’s about a couple of city blocks in diameter. Here’s a list of tasks that it can perform: run, jump, claw, eat, drink, collect chests that contain cheetah facts, roar, produce offsprings, and die. I’d say that it’s a pretty compelling list of things cheetahs usually do, but that’s not enough for a varied gaming experience. There’s a bunch of animals that the cheetah can kill and eat, some of them being quite tough and able to kill the inexperienced cheetah pretty quickly. Basically, the gameplay consists of killing smaller animals, eating them and leveling up through it, so the cheetah becomes stronger, and then moving on to stronger prey. There’s a couple of interesting mechanics, such as being able to mate and produce offspring that will hunt with the player and help kill off the most powerful animals. Another cool trick is that if the cheetah jumps and claws at an animal while running, she will perform a tackle that will kill off the smaller animals and, well, tackle the larger ones. It requires a bit of skill and makes hunting a bit more interesting. There are also several skins for your pride to wear that are unlocked after reaching a certain level, and a special attack.

Overall, Cheetah Simulator isn’t bad, especially for a free game, but it lacks features, multiplayer and proper scale. The same game, but blown up to at least five hundred yards and with several ecosystems, would be a nature lovers’ feast. Right now it’s basically just a demo for a non-existent game. I still recommend it for a younger audience and the fans of African savannah, so here’s hoping that it will grow into something bigger.

Like frogs? Like digital pets? Then chances are you’ll enjoy Pocket Frogs. It’s a pretty simple set-up with no story to speak of, and the premise is simply that you have digital frogs in your pocket.

After you get past the mandatory account sign-up (it is a free app after all), play begins with your two starter frogs hopping around in their habitat. You can tap on a frog to read its info and stats, move it from place to place, give it potions to boost its Happiness, or bring it to the pond. At the pond you can tap on lily pads to make the frogs jump across the dragonflies which are flying around, and thus eat them. Feeding the frogs raises their Happiness meter, and hopping them around also â€œtamesâ€ them, allowing you to breed them with any frogs you may run across. The aim seems to be maintaining the Happiness of the frogs. Aside from feeding, you can do this by playing two mini games: a race, or a puzzle. Your success in the races depends on your frog’s Happiness, so make sure to keep him fed before competing. The puzzle I found to be impossibly difficult, and not really much fun as a result.

The point of the app is mating your frogs with others to create new breeds, to add them to your catalog and increase your net number of frogs. You can earn trophies for success in taming and breeding your frogs. Your catalog of frogs grows as you blend them, and there is a status meter to show what percentage of possible breed options you have achieved. Collecting frogs earns you trophies. In game, you can also earn coins, stamps and potions, all used to increase your frogs’ quality of life. You start off with a certain number of coins, and they are actually required if you want to breed your frogs. The items you can purchase are simple decorations for the habitats, or food, or new backgrounds.

This app is cute, and I do like frogs, so I was happy to try it out. There is something strangely soothing about hopping the frogs around their pond, and you can’t help but feel a thrill when you create a new breed. The frogs themselves are very cute, and it’s relaxing to watch them hop around.

However, I have more than a few issues with it. The game only has one physical template for the frogs (cute as it may be), so your options are really a difference between colour gradients, and the creative names the game designers came up with. So if you’re hoping to see some Pokemon-style action and breed new and amazing frog varieties, you will be disappointed. When you “buy” items for your frogs you are forced to spend 30 minutes real time waiting for them to download, unless you spend stamps to expedite the shipping. It’s a frustrating feature which adds nothing to the game.

And my final complaint is a big one: the game requires network access at all time. My metric for a lot of game-type apps will be whether or not I can play them while commuting, and Pocket Frogs cannot be played on the subway, or in areas with low signal. After trying unsuccessfully to connect a few times I’ve had enough. The cuteness of the frogs is outweighed by the demands of the app.